Renesas Electronics on Monday outlined its technology roadmap, including additions to the company's RX family of 32-bit microcontrollers and plans to launch a new family of ARM-based microprocessors. Renesas said it would use its 40-nm MONOS embedded flash technology with the company's RX MCUs. The company also announced it would expand the RX family to include a low-power microcontroller for the embedded market that includes as little as 8 kilobytes (KB) of flash memory.

Renesas will be broadening the RX family at both the high and low ends to include the RX700 series - a higher speed version of the company's RX600 MCUs?and the ultra low power RX100 series.

Renesas said its new RZ family of ARM-based microprocessors will be deployed for a wide range of applications that require high-speed data processing i excess of 300 MHz. The devices, which can be used with general purpose operating system like Linux, will combine the ARM core with Renesas' library of peripherals. The family will include two series optimized for two primary application areas?graphic and human/machine interfaces and connectivity.

The 40-nm versions of the RX600 MCUs are in development, Renesas said. The first sample with dual Ethernet, 4-MB of MONOS flash and 512-KB SRAM is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 2013.

Mass production of the RX100 series featuring flash memory integration from 8- to 128-KB is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013, Renesas said. The company also plans to provide samples of the first 40-nm RZ microprocessors in the second quarter of 2013.